[XeTeX] how to do (better) searchable PDFs in xelatex?

[Peter Baker]

On 10/14/12 7:47 PM, mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:
> If font designers did that, and if PDF readers looked at the glyph 
> names according to Adobe's directions, then searches would work 
> regardless of PUA use. However, not all fonts and not all readers do this.
My experience is that "not all" = "none." I've tested my own font 
(Junicode) in Adobe Reader, Preview, Evince and Goodreader (with PDFs 
generated by XeTeX), and the result is the same in all. Standard 
ligatures (those encoded at FB00 and following) work fine, but others do 
not. For example, Junicode has an f_t ligature in the PUA, properly 
named, and when that is used you cannot search for "after" or "often" in 
any of those PDF readers. But when I move it out of the PUA into an 
unencoded slot, it works fine.

Same with Libertine.

Peter